Esdras (Greek: ) is a Greco-Latin variation of the name of Hebrew Ezra the Scribe (Hebrew: עזרא). The name is found in the titles of several books attributed to or associated with the scribe that are in or related to the Hebrew and Christian Bibles.
The books associated with Ezra are titled differently in different versions of the Bible. The following table summarizes the various names:
The Thirty-nine Articles that define the doctrines of the Church of England follow the naming convention of the Vulgate. Likewise, the Vulgate enumeration is often used by modern scholars, who nevertheless use the name Ezra to avoid confusion with the Greek and Slavonic enumerations: 1 Ezra (Ezra), 2 Ezra (Nehemiah), 3 Ezra (Esdras A/1 Esdras), 4 Ezra (chapters 3–14 of 4 Esdras), 5 Ezra (chapters 1–2 of 4 Esdras) and 6 Ezra (chapters 15–16 of 4 Esdras).
The two books universally considered canonical, Ezra and Nehemiah (lines 1 and 2 of the table above), may have been originally one book titled Ezra (= Esdras). Perhaps as early as Melito's canon of the 2nd century, Jews began to refer to the "two books of Ezra," where the second was Nehemiah. Sometime thereafter the Christian church followed suit.